New router forgoes cutting-edge features in favor of ease-of-use.

If you've ever configured a router before, this will be familiar to you: connect to it with your computer, log in to the admin console, figure out what the default password settings are so you can actually get in to change stuff, and then click through a few pages of settings until you have things working to your liking. This is all pretty simple for the tech enthusiast, but if you've ever tried walking someone else through setting up a router, this short list of tasks quickly becomes an exercise in frustration.

These non-technical users are who Securifi is targeting with its new Almond wireless router, which was on display during CE Week in New York City today. The Almond integrates a 2.8-inch 320x240 touchscreen to help novice users set up and configure their router. Using the touchscreen, users can view and set their SSID and network password in plain text, see the status of their Internet connection, view information about the router's IP and MAC addresses, and even configure the router as a range extender, an advanced feature normally reserved for more expensive routers (or routers with custom firmware like DD-WRT). Users can also specify a four-digit PIN to lock the screen and prevent people with physical access to the router from easily grabbing your password.

Enlarge/ The Almond makes configuring a wireless range extender for your network much easier than something like DD-WRT.

By default, the router ships with WPA2 security enabled, and each device uses a unique passcode rather than shipping from the factory with the same settings as routers did once upon a time. The default SSID for the device even includes the "_nomap" suffix required to exclude your wireless network from Google Maps' user location triangulations. For advanced users, a standard Web console can be used to configure advanced options like QoS, port forwarding, and DMZ settings, as well as "don't use these unless you know what you're doing" settings like WEP.

The hardware behind all of this is decent but not cutting-edge: it supports 300Mbps 802.11n connections but only on the 2.4 GHz band, and it only has two 100 megabit Ethernet ports alongside its WAN port—Gigabit Ethernet and USB aren't available. An 802.11ac version of the router is in development for launch at some unspecified future date, but the Almond as it stands is aiming for novice users rather than seasoned veterans who need the fastest possible network connections.

Securifi told Ars that the router should be shipping in a few weeks, and that it should retail for about $80. A prototype Almond with an integrated DSL modem was also on display, but there was no information on pricing and availability.

Just curious: If I don't broadcast my SSID, is there any benefit to "_nomap"? I know in theory you can still scan for it, but from a mapping point of view. Slightly unrelated, I know.

I'm guessing it's for giving warm fuzzies to those crazies that think such a thing is important & the ability to add an extra bulletpoint to the box that's almost certain to not be on the next one over on the shelf

FrisbeeFreek wrote:

About time someone produced a user friendly router. Trying to diagnose my mom's router over the phone is a pita (storing the router password in the cloud wasn't her best decision).

Seriously, there is no reason to bury all the functionality. There are enough standards that it should be PnP, and if an enthusiast wants to ddwrt, they can buy something else and go to town.

My stepdad almost threw out my mom's wireless router once because I had taped a square of paper to the bottom with the passphrase & such written down to the bottom & he thought someone had vandalized it or something (they had it on a screened back porch for a while), luckily she knows a bit & stopped him

Just curious: If I don't broadcast my SSID, is there any benefit to "_nomap"? I know in theory you can still scan for it, but from a mapping point of view. Slightly unrelated, I know.

I'm guessing it's for giving warm fuzzies to those crazies that think such a thing is important & the ability to add an extra bulletpoint to the box that's almost certain to not be on the next one over on the shelf

I hope it fails just because of this.

FrisbeeFreek wrote:

About time someone produced a user friendly router. Trying to diagnose my mom's router over the phone is a pita (storing the router password in the cloud wasn't her best decision).

Seriously, there is no reason to bury all the functionality. There are enough standards that it should be PnP, and if an enthusiast wants to ddwrt, they can buy something else and go to town.

I hope it can still be configurable the traditional way. The screen looks like a major pain to me.

Why not just put on GBit ethernet though? It's not like that would significantly change the cost or user-friendlyness, but it would let people actually use the bandwidth they get from their ISP..

Oh wait, it's American, they don't have any bandwidth there so that feature would be useless.

Really? Do you want to start a discussion on the state of the internet across the globe in an article about an ease-of-use router?

He does have a good snide point about this. Computers since the mid 2000's have had gigabit nics installed in the bloody things by default, so I need to have a gigabit router in my system somewhere before I make a connection into the 4 port 10/100 POS that Bell/Aliant has provided me.

Mind you the reason they give you a 10/100 POS is so that you cannot use the bandwidth you are paying for. Nice built in bottleneck in the home.

Why not just put on GBit ethernet though? It's not like that would significantly change the cost or user-friendlyness, but it would let people actually use the bandwidth they get from their ISP..

Oh wait, it's American, they don't have any bandwidth there so that feature would be useless.

Really? Do you want to start a discussion on the state of the internet across the globe in an article about an ease-of-use router?

He does have a good snide point about this. Computers since the mid 2000's have had gigabit nics installed in the bloody things by default, so I need to have a gigabit router in my system somewhere before I make a connection into the 4 port 10/100 POS that Bell/Aliant has provided me.

Mind you the reason they give you a 10/100 POS is so that you cannot use the bandwidth you are paying for. Nice built in bottleneck in the home.

The "bottlenecks" for most people isn't in their local equipment, Giga, or otherwise. The reason for the presence of Giga in a local network is usually computer to computer transfers.

I can see this being useful for a couple things, like when you assign a static IP to a router and disable DHCP to use it as an AP, and then forget the IP, after having assigned it to the wrong subnet. Then again, most people that are using these things for anything more than a standard router probably know how to portscan and reset the hardware, and would certainly be comfortable with a web admin panel.

I guess it would mainly be useful to set up a protected network if you only have a roku and an ipad.

"One set is to log into the device to set it up. The other is to hook other devices to it."

"I'm confused."

"You see, you have to be able to get into the device as an admin to set it up, but people that want to use the network also need to get on it using a password to ensure the network is secure."

"Can't we just use the same login and password for both?"

"Ok, maybe I'm not explaining this properly..."

(Just went through this yesterday with my gf while encrypting her wifi network. Her dad, a self-acclaimed tech enthusiast, set up her wifi network at her apt. She was complaining about it being slow. I go over there ... and for starters it's not secure. There's a couple of unkown devices on it. I secure the thing, then fiddle with the settings. It was restricting the flow of data to some abysmal amount. I opened the pipe.... she went from 54bps to 1mbps. Go fig. During the whole time, she was asking me why she needed 2 logins? What was that funny screen I was on? etc, etc. She's a smart girl, but routers are a PITA.)

Exactly Tundro. Even if a device like this only eliminates that problem its worth while. I will say this is only true with one caveat. The front touch interface has to be reasonably user friendly or its all for nothing. If they screw it up like so many others and make it easier to lose your changes than apply them the whole concept goes down in flames. If you talk mom through the changes on the phone only to have her discard them, you've already lost. One time ruined her day, twice will make her want to ruin the router.